HTML 5 <form> Tag
The HTML <form>
tag is used for declaring a form.
The <form>
tag is used in conjunction with form-associated elements. To create a form, you can nest form-associated elements inside the opening/closing <form>
tags. You can also use the form
attribute within those elements to reference the ID of the form to use.
Form-Associated Elements
Here are the elements that can have a form-owner.
Demo
Attributes
HTML tags can contain one or more attributes. Attributes are added to a tag to provide the browser with more information about how the tag should appear or behave. Attributes consist of a name and a value separated by an equals (=) sign, with the value surrounded by double quotes. Here's an example, style="color:black;"
.
There are 3 kinds of attributes that you can add to your HTML tags: Element-specific, global, and event handler content attributes.
The attributes that you can add to this tag are listed below.
Element-Specific Attributes
The following table shows the attributes that are specific to this tag/element.
Attribute | Description |
---|---|
accept-charset | Specifies a list of character encodings that the server accepts. The default value is "UNKNOWN". |
action | Specifies a URI/URL of the page that will process the form. |
autocomplete | Specifies whether the form fields should be automatically completed based on the user's history (i.e. based on previous forms that the user has completed). This relieves the user from having to re-enter form data that could easily be re-populated from previous form history (such as address information).
The autocomplete attribute is an enumerated attribute which has two states; "on" and "off". The default value is "on". Note that is it possible to set the form's autocomplete to one value, then specify a different value against specific fields within that form. |
enctype | Specifies the content type used to encode the form data set when it's submitted to the server.
Possible values:
|
method | Specifies the HTTP method to use when the form is submitted.
Possible values:
|
name | Assigns a name to the form. This is used when referencing the form with stylesheets or scripts. If there are multiple forms, the name of each form must be unique. |
novalidate | Specifies that the form should not be validated during submission.
This is a boolean attribute. If the attribute is present, its value must either be the empty string or a value that is an ASCII case-insensitive match for the attribute's canonical name, with no leading or trailing whitespace (i.e. either Possible values:
|
target | Specifies the browsing context to load the destination indicated in the action attribute.
Possible values:
|
Global Attributes
The following attributes are standard across all HTML 5 tags.
- accesskey
- class
- contenteditable
- contextmenu
- dir
- draggable
- dropzone
- hidden
- id
- itemid
- itemprop
- itemref
- itemscope
- itemtype
- lang
- spellcheck
- style
- tabindex
- title
- translate
For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 global attributes.
Event Handler Content Attributes
Event handler content attributes enable you to invoke a script from within your HTML. The script is invoked when a certain "event" occurs. Each event handler content attribute deals with a different event.
Here are the standard HTML 5 event handler content attributes.
- onabort
- oncancel
- onblur
- oncanplay
- oncanplaythrough
- onchange
- onclick
- oncontextmenu
- ondblclick
- ondrag
- ondragend
- ondragenter
- ondragexit
- ondragleave
- ondragover
- ondragstart
- ondrop
- ondurationchange
- onemptied
- onended
- onerror
- onfocus
- onformchange
- onforminput
- oninput
- oninvalid
- onkeydown
- onkeypress
- onkeyup
- onload
- onloadeddata
- onloadedmetadata
- onloadstart
- onmousedown
- onmousemove
- onmouseout
- onmouseover
- onmouseup
- onmousewheel
- onpause
- onplay
- onplaying
- onprogress
- onratechange
- onreadystatechange
- onscroll
- onseeked
- onseeking
- onselect
- onshow
- onstalled
- onsubmit
- onsuspend
- ontimeupdate
- onvolumechange
- onwaiting
For a full explanation of these attributes, see HTML 5 event handler content attributes.